4.3 Preview: Well of Eternity Overview and Dragon Soul Testing

Blizzard hit us with an unexpected testing phase this afternoon of the new raid as well as the final 5-man; unfortunately, the raid was announced right as the bosses went live, so the servers started tanking immediately while everyone rushed to log on. Only a few groups got a 10-man together--most top-end guilds fought the loading screen boss instead, getting 4-5 of their members in the instance before testing time ran out. We managed to get in and take some screenshots, but sadly, the majority of my guild was stuck at the loading bar for the entire night.

All of this is to say I doubt we'll see many good videos, as the streams were fairly disappointing due to guilds like Blood Legion only able to pull trash due to limited numbers--most videos will probably be PUG point of views.

A rocky start, but hopefully we'll have some great testing sessions before and after BlizzCon!

Well of Eternity Screenshots

Dragon Soul

Set in a besieged Dragonblight, the imagery is sadly nothing new compared to the gorgeous Well of Eternity we also previewed. The bosses look awesome, though--as well as menacing!

Well of Eternity

Upon zoning in, your party is transformed into night elves then introduced to a stealthed Illidan. This is before his corruption; back when he was a good guy. It serves as a glimpse into the man that was before his demise in Black Temple. Shortly after, you gain a stealth buff, which allows you to run through armies of demons undetected. Periodically, Illidan stops, asking your group to sabotage a prism.

Peroth'arn

Illidan controls to patrol around the garden with your party in tow, until he sees Peroth'arn and comes out of the shadows to engage him. Peroth'arn hunts and corrupts those of your party until you kill him; the fight uses fun stealth mechanics.

Queen Azshara

Leaving the garden through a ramp upwards, you'll run into Azshara and her puppets. She'll try to turn your group into them as well. If you outlast her, she eventually gets bored and flies off on a black bat. At this point, you mount bronze drakes to proceed to the final part of the instance.

Mannoroth

The well has been corrupted and is a maelstrom of fel energies, in a striking RP sequence. However, Illidan and Tyrande are here to take care of things. Sticking by their sides, you eventually see the destruction of the pit lord who corrupted it. Illidan uses one of the vials of eternity to shield the group from 90% of the fire damage the encounter has, while Tyrande shoots volleys of arrows at fel enemies, channeling the energy of the moonwell when she runs out of arrows. Upon beating this boss, players get a special two hour title <Name>, The Hand of Elune. This is also an incredibly detailed section of the instance, with gorgeous areas to explore.

Well of Eternity Dungeon Journal Entries

Peroth'arn

Like many of his fellow Highborne, Peroth'arn swore allegiance to the corrupted Xavius in exchange for gifts of demonic power. As a master of fiendish magic and recipient of the satyr curse, Peroth'arn stands outside Azshara's palace in defense of the Burning Legion, ready to destroy those hoping to disrupt the entrance of the Dark Titan, Sargeras, into Azeroth.

Combat Phase: Kill the Satyr!

Peroth'arn is ambushed by the heroes, but won't go down without a fight. He corrupts those around him, dealing heavy damage.

Hunting Phase: Hero Failure PH

Easy Prey: Upon being spotted by the Demonic Eyes, the hero is stunned for five seconds and Pero'tharn returns from the shadows.

Queen Azshara

The songs of Queen Azshara's beauty, majesty, and power are too numerous to count, but it was her vanity that drove the Highborne to summon the Burning Legion. She now watches her most trusted magi empower the portal where Sargeras will be brought into Azeroth, content to let multitudes of her servants die in advance of the Dark Titan's arrival.

You are mine now!: Periodically, Queen Azshara will charm a random target, causing them to become a puppet. Players will be released from her control when the puppet strings are defeated.

Dance, puppets!: Eventually, Queen Azshara is overcome with boredom. She will attempt to turn the entire party into puppets. This ability must be kicked.

Holy Magus

Mannoroth and Varo'then

Varo'then, head of Queen Azshara's personal guard, and Mannoroth, the pit lord whose blood will corrupt the entire orc race, stand as the last line of defense against those hoping to bar Sargeras's entry into Azeroth. Though both Tyrande and Illidan have fought bravely thus far, the fate of Azeroth will be decided at the Well of Eternity's very brink.

Stage One: Dealing with the Rabble

Players must defeat Captain Varo'then while Illidian and Tyrande fight off Mannoroth and the demonic forces entering from the Well of Eternity.

Mannoroth

Mannaroth faces off in mortal combat against Illidan Stormrage.

Fel Firestorm: Mannoroth unleashes a Fel Firestorm, rapidly creating 3 yard radius Fel Flames around the area for 15 sec. Fel Flames inflict 30000 Fire damage every second to any player standing within them.

Waters of Eternity: After Mannoroth creates a Fel Firestorm, Illidan splashes himself with the waters of the Well of Eternity. The water provides substantial magical powers and reduces the Fire damage taken by all nearby allies by -90%.

Tyrande Whisperwind

Tyrande positions herself to intercept the rush of Doomguard Devastators exiting from the Well of Eternity with Lunar Shot.

Lunar Shot: Tyrande holds off the demons exiting from the Well of Eternity with her Lunar Shot.

Blessing of Elune: When a Dreadlord Debilitator casts Debilitating Flay upon her, Tyrande beseeches Elune for her blessing. This blessing affects all nearby allies, enchanting their attacks and spells to inflict additional Arcane damage to lesser demons.

Stage Two: Flames and Darkness

After the players defeat Captain Varo'then, his enchanted Magistrike Blade lies on the ground. After a player throws and embeds the blade into Mannoroth, the demon begins to take massive damage from the stored magic within the blade.

Mannoroth

The wounded Mannoroth continues to fight, opening a Nether Portal to bring demonic allies into the fray.

Embedded Blade

Players may pick up Captain Varo'then's magical elven blade and throw it towards Mannoroth. The blade embeds itself into Mannoroth's demonic armor. The magical blade then causes strikes against Mannoroth to have a chance to create a Magistrike Arc inflicting 2000000 Fire damage to Mannoroth.

Fel Fire Nova: After a player embeds the Magistrike blade within Mannorth, the open wound emits a steady pulse of fel fire. Each pulse inflicts 30000 Fire damage to enemies.

Nether Portal: Mannoroth summons a portal to the Twisting Nether, allowing him to call forth demonic allies. As his remaining health dwindles, additional types of demons exit through the portal.

Felhound

At 75% remaining health, Mannoroth summons a weak felhound to aid him in combat from the Nether Portal.

Felguard

At 60% remaining health, Mannoroth also summons a Felguard from the Nether Portal to aid him in combat.

Doomguard Devastator

Infernal

At 30% remaining health, Mannoroth calls down a hail of Infernals to aid him in combat.

Illidan Stormrage

Illidan continues to fight Mannoroth with his host of Demon Hunter abilities.

Tyrande Whisperwind

Tyrande runs out of arrows and beseeches Elune for help against the overwhelming number of demons.

Hand of Elune: Tyrande is granted the full powers of the High Priestess of Elune, inflicting 100000 Arcane damage to three neaby lesser demons every 3 seconds.

Stage Three: Your World will be Unmade!

After Tyrande collapses upon destroying the rain of Infernals, Illidan then infuses himself to finish off Mannoroth.

Mannoroth

Even heavily wounded Mannoroth continues to fight for his lord Sargeras.

Embedded Blade

The embedded magical blade causes strikes against Mannoroth to have a chance to create a Magistrike Arc, inflicting 2000000 Fire damage to Mannoroth.

Fel Fire Nova: After a player embeds the Magistrike blade within Mannorth, the open wound emits a steady pulse of fel fire. Each pulse inflicts 30000 Fire damage to enemies.

Illidan Stormrage

Illidan infuses himself with demonic energy to finish the fight.

Gift of Sargeras: Illidan infuses himself and all nearby allies with the fel energies of the demon lord Sargeras, healing for 20% of maximum health every 2 seconds and dealing 30000 Fire damage to nearby enemies every 2 seconds.

Tyrande Whisperwind

Tyrande unleashes a massive blast of Arcane energy to destroy any nearby lesser demons, then collapses.

Malfurion Stormrage

Utilizing the powers of nature bestowed upon him by the demigod Cenarius, Malfurion Stormrage focuses the will of the living creatures of Azeroth upon the demonic portal hovering over the Well of Eternity. When Mannoroth reaches 5% remaining health, Malfurion casts a spell to cause the portal to violently implode and pull the demonic legions out of Azeroth.

Comments

Comment by loopnotdefined

on 2011/10/14 23:16:09

Anybody else reminded of the original Doom when playing Well of Eternity?

Comment by deathbeyond

on 2011/10/14 23:38:38

While it's good that the testing for the raid went on, it's also bad. It means they are rushing the patch. It's going to come out too soon. For any of us that are wanting to start progression through Dragon Soul, I would suggest waiting 2-3 weeks after its release(if they do indeed rush the patch.) The reason being, they will most likely run out so many hotfixes to bosses/mechanics to make it doable, that our heads will be whiplashing back and forth til we all just give up. I highly doubt that the raid will be completable in its release form. Iunno, guess we will see.

Comment by sacreddevil

on 2011/10/15 00:05:40

I wanna see how Malfurion EXPLODE the well of eternity ! More explode !

Comment by Narshe

on 2011/10/15 00:07:27

While it's good that the testing for the raid went on, it's also bad. It means they are rushing the patch. It's going to come out too soon. For any of us that are wanting to start progression through Dragon Soul, I would suggest waiting 2-3 weeks after its release(if they do indeed rush the patch.) The reason being, they will most likely run out so many hotfixes to bosses/mechanics to make it doable, that our heads will be whiplashing back and forth til we all just give up. I highly doubt that the raid will be completable in its release form. Iunno, guess we will see.

Because testing 2 raid bosses means the game will be released in a week. I don't think your familiar with how the PTR testing phase has worked in the past.

Comment by deathbeyond

on 2011/10/15 00:46:07

Because testing 2 raid bosses means the game will be released in a week. I don't think your familiar with how the PTR testing phase has worked in the past.

Huh, I must have missed that part where Ash said that only 2 of the bosses were tested....Oh wait, nope that wasn't in her post. I can't make assumptions to something where no data points to it. I see "Dragon Soul was open for testing." So I think that they were actually stupid enough to rush all of it onto the PTR. And clearly they aren't even ready for testing it, since it chokepointed the servers the second it went live, resulting in practically no testing going on. So, my statement stands: They are rushing the PTR.

Also I in no way said next week. I would never even think that. But even a month would be too soon to release it. If they don't rush the patch, I will not be surprised to see it not land until early December. As it should, because as I said, I would rather get a completely adjusted and workable raid, instead of having a new set of hotfixes to work with every week until they finally stop ping-ponging back and forth.

Comment by Interest

on 2011/10/15 01:01:18

I love the placeholders =)

Comment by Ashelia

on 2011/10/15 02:59:40

Because testing 2 raid bosses means the game will be released in a week. I don't think your familiar with how the PTR testing phase has worked in the past.

Huh, I must have missed that part where Ash said that only 2 of the bosses were tested....Oh wait, nope that wasn't in her post. I can't make assumptions to something where no data points to it. I see "Dragon Soul was open for testing." So I think that they were actually stupid enough to rush all of it onto the PTR. And clearly they aren't even ready for testing it, since it chokepointed the servers the second it went live, resulting in practically no testing going on. So, my statement stands: They are rushing the PTR.

Also I in no way said next week. I would never even think that. But even a month would be too soon to release it. If they don't rush the patch, I will not be surprised to see it not land until early December. As it should, because as I said, I would rather get a completely adjusted and workable raid, instead of having a new set of hotfixes to work with every week until they finally stop ping-ponging back and forth.

To be fair, they accidentally put more than 2 up--the instance was available, though not intended.

Comment by electricocean

on 2011/10/15 06:20:58

Maaaan. Well of Eternity looks fantastic. Dragon Soul looks much brighter than I anticipated. I figured on a gloomier looking environment.

Comment by deathbeyond

on 2011/10/15 06:32:41

To be fair, they accidentally put more than 2 up--the instance was available, though not intended.

Well that makes more sense. All I know is I saw the raid was getting tested and went into "Oh shiiii..." mode. I would much rather they take as long as they want to iron everything our than rush the patch to us.

As for the brightness of the raid. Makes sense....It's just Dragonblight. The darker version would be the 5-man. Deathwing is just starting his attack, so he wouldn't have corrupted much at all, at least as I see it.

Comment by Sixfreed

on 2011/10/15 06:33:26

Maybe it is just me, but I don't feel really impressed of the Dragon Sould raid previews at all. WoE looks much better.I hope the atmosphere of the raid will rock, it would be a shame if it was less epic than FL.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2011/10/15 07:59:38

random nit-pick:

Why some of the highborne use high-elf models? the highborne didn't became high-elves till several hundreds of years after moving to the eastern kingdoms, rejecting nocturnal life, and actually getting some sun on their skin.

Of course, they could be placeholders.

Also U_U I was kinda hoping we would get to see a glimpse of sargeras just before the well collapsed. In the new re-written timeline Sargeras manages to get half-way through the well before it closed.

all in all, everything looks nice though.

Dragon soul looks epic, with that dragon army battling the twilight and black dragonflights and all that.

As for being "too bright" do remember pls that some of the fights (2 of htem to be accurate) take place in the stomach of an isorath-like creature, so that part at least will be quite gloomy. Then there's the part of us fighting on top of deathwing's back, where I imagine the sky wont be bright and sunny, and we can actually expect some dark clouds and fire and brimstone raining down.

The last bit on the maelstrom I fully expect it to be full madness as we battle the shell of neltharion

Comment by worgenator

on 2011/10/15 08:04:32

They are making good fun of the lore ffs...Illidan was not using ANY weapons back then. He was a MAGE. When needed, he could conjure a sword, or move a sword of the fallen warriors magically.

All he's supposed to cast is serpentine spell (black snakes around neck made of dark energy that cut your head off), mana burn (sucking magic out of caster enemy untill just a dry shell remains - like a felbeast) and some explosions. He did not show more in war of the ancients..

But ofc blizzard is making him a melee fighter again lol..

Comment by DeadBoyParis

on 2011/10/15 08:35:43

Why is Tryande's hair green? :|

Comment by Rankkor

on 2011/10/15 08:37:53

They are making good fun of the lore ffs...Illidan was not using ANY weapons back then. He was a MAGE. When needed, he could conjure a sword, or move a sword of the fallen warriors magically.

All he's supposed to cast is serpentine spell (black snakes around neck made of dark energy that cut your head off), mana burn (sucking magic out of caster enemy untill just a dry shell remains - like a felbeast) and some explosions. He did not show more in war of the ancients..

But ofc blizzard is making him a melee fighter again lol..

actually, Illidan slayed the demon lord Azzinoth on the ORIGINAL war of the ancients, and this is where he got his warglaives.

Furthermore, all demon-hunters use warglaives to imitate Illidan's combat style that mixed both melee prowess with spellcasting.

If anything, it was knaak who got it wrong by portraying him as a pure sorcerer when in truth Illidan was more of a magic warrior.

This version of Illidan is closer to what his source material portrayed him as.

Comment by Rankkor

on 2011/10/15 08:40:45

Why is Tryande's hair green? :|

now THIS is the part where lore and gameplay segregate.

see my friend, these people can't posibly decide what color night elven hair is suposed to be for each character.

Take a look at malfurion, his hair was blue in warcraft 3, then silver in frozen throne, then green everywhere else.

Then we have Illidan, having silver hair in warcraft 3, dark blue hair in war of the ancients, and pitch black hair on black temple.

contestant numero 3 is Tyrande, displayed as having blue hair on warcraft 3, and the comics, and her current ingame model, but suddenly green-haired in the battle mosaic, and also green haired on war of the ancients.

They really can't make up their damn minds when it comes to night elf hair.

ohh well, at least they made up their minds when it comes to hairstyles :P

Comment by Lokann

on 2011/10/15 10:02:14

They are making good fun of the lore ffs...Illidan was not using ANY weapons back then. He was a MAGE. When needed, he could conjure a sword, or move a sword of the fallen warriors magically.

All he's supposed to cast is serpentine spell (black snakes around neck made of dark energy that cut your head off), mana burn (sucking magic out of caster enemy untill just a dry shell remains - like a felbeast) and some explosions. He did not show more in war of the ancients..

But ofc blizzard is making him a melee fighter again lol..

That's Knaak's version. Before the War of the Ancients trilogy came out, the canon was that he had claimed the Blades of Azzinoth during the war itself. It makes sense actually, because judging by the trilogy he couldn't have obtained the warglaives at all (he's captured and imprisoned soon after the final fight, and Azzinoth is never ever mentioned).

The logical assumption is that he must have carved them out of soap during his imprisonment. :p

Comment by Dotard

on 2011/10/15 10:22:51

Is it just me or thats Sargera's arm in that portal ?

Comment by Interest

on 2011/10/15 10:30:12

I noticed there's a special title in those screenshots...

Maybe related to Well of Eternity?

Comment by Crossfyre

on 2011/10/15 10:40:18

I noticed there's a special title in those screenshots...

Maybe related to Well of Eternity?

In the Mannoroth part of the preview, it says you get the Hand of Elune title for 2 hours after defeating Mannoroth. So it's temporary :(

Comment by elionor

on 2011/10/15 11:51:05

They are making good fun of the lore ffs...Illidan was not using ANY weapons back then. He was a MAGE. When needed, he could conjure a sword, or move a sword of the fallen warriors magically.

All he's supposed to cast is serpentine spell (black snakes around neck made of dark energy that cut your head off), mana burn (sucking magic out of caster enemy untill just a dry shell remains - like a felbeast) and some explosions. He did not show more in war of the ancients..

But ofc blizzard is making him a melee fighter again lol..

he got his swords from a doomguard he killed called azzinoth (hence the name of the blades) and he was a demon hunter once to i am more surprised that they are making him more of a rogue/warrior then a magi